3 Tools That Make the Internet FUN

by Sherry Heyl

I am often asked how much time I spend working on the computer. That is a really hard question for me to answer. I spend many hours reading, learning about new sites, and exploring creative ideas. Is that work or is that play? I guess I am very fortunate that how I work is also how I would spend my free time. But there are 3 tools that make exploring the Internet not only fun, but productive.

Diigo

For many years my favorite social network was a social bookmarking site called Delicious. Once Yahoo! sold it, the site became  less reliable and frustrating. I finally had to give up and move to Diigo and I am so glad that I did.

Like Delicious, Diigo is a social bookmarking tool. I use Diigo to save all the articles I want to keep, read later, or share with my network on Twitter or Facebook by simply clicking the Diigo icon on my browser toolbar.

Diigo is also a community where I can discover people who have similar interests as me and follow the articles that they are saving.

Diigo helps me organize all of the articles I subscribe to via RSS feeds or through my Google Alerts. It enables me to share valuable information to my Twitter followers or Facebook friends, and is a much more effective site for research than a general search engine when I am doing research for a specific client.

StumbleUpon

StumbleUpon is the site I turn to when I want to be entertained.  StumbleUpon allows you to select your topics of Interests and then allows you  to “stumble” through the Internet, which is a lot like channel surfing.

You are able to tell StumbleUpon what you like and what you don’t with a  thumbs up and a thumbs down. The more you use StumbleUpon the more it will consistently serve you great pages. You can choose to stumble through the Internet as a whole, or just photos or just videos. When there is nothing good on TV to watch at night, which is often, I turn to StumbleUpon Video. When I need some creative inspiration I turn to StumbleUpon photo.

Pinterest

Today I signed up for the latest site that is receiving lots of buzz, Pinterest. I am still exploring all that it can do, but my immediate thought was that this was a place where I can save all the images that make me laugh and/or inspire me. It is a social bookmarking site and a discovery site like Diigo and StumbleUpon. But unlike Diigo and StumbleUpon, Pinterest is an engaged community and a place where you can upload your own images directly to the site as opposed to only bookmark external pages. Of course the first Pin Board I started to make is of images of my younger son rockin!

The Internet is full of very interesting content that has been posted by all types of people who have found an outlet for creative expression. More and more traditional publishers of content are competing for attention with everyday people. Distribution of content is being determined by networks of people rather than broadcasting networks. This is a great opportunity for marketers who are passionate about their what they are promoting and can create authentic, creative and inspirational content that people not only enjoy seeing, but also want to share it with the world.